SPORTS PULLOUT & CLASSIFIEDS INSIDE
• B SECTION • FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2021
THE REGION’S HUB FOR
OUTDOOR ADVENTURES
Each week in this section, you will find the area’s
most complete guide of what’s open and closed;
outdoor activities and events; top picks of places to
explore; conditions of hiking and biking trails,
fishing holes, water flows, camping spots, parks
and more — as well as features from outdoor
writers and field experts.
Central Oregon in
BLOOM
BY MAKENZIE WHITTLE • The Bulletin
W
ildflowers across the area have been blooming since late April, and with recent welcome
rain along with melting snow, more will start budding out soon.
Here are a few trails to check out for vibrant blooms and verdant landscapes. Bonus: You’ll get
in some trail hikes in the process. Because this winter was fairly dry in some regions, some growth
may be limited.
High Desert blooms
Alpine aster
grows out of rocky soil along
the Whychus Canyon rim.
There’s still time to catch the lower
elevation and High Desert trails with
fireworks of color.
As opposed to their higher eleva-
tion counterparts, sometimes spotting
a wildflower in the High Desert might
feel more like a game of eye spy, but it’s
worth it when you do. That’s not to say
you won’t find something more distinct
like a desert lupine or large swaths of
paintbrush adding their beautiful red
pigment to the dry desert-y landscape.
Be sure to look all around you and even
in the bushes and trees as they may also
be blooming.
Whychus Canyon Preserve
— The preserve has varied
terrains that allow for a
wide variety of flora
to grow each year.
From the banks of
the Whychus Creek
to the dryer flats
on the canyon rim,
you can spot lupin,
milkvetch, larkspur,
shaggy daisies and
more. You may even
catch the tail end of
the sand lilies along the
rim trails. The Deschutes
Land Trust, who manages
the 930-acre preserve also of-
fers guided wildflower hikes during
the season, but spots fill up quickly
so early registration is a must. See de-
schuteslandtrust.org to sign up.
A lone bitterroot grows out of rocky
terrain along Rimrock Springs trail.
Rimrock Springs and Gray Butte
— They may not look like much more
than sage and dirt, but look a little
closer, and you can find ground cov-
ers of tiny purple-flowered phlox, lu-
pine, larkspur and paintbrush — even a
stray bitterroot may be creeping out of
the sagebrush steppe terrain. Rimrock
Springs’ easy loop is a good alternative
to the more strenuous butte climb, but
bring plenty of water for either trek.
Scout Camp Trail — The moderate
2.5-mile trail loops down deep into the
Deschutes River canyon, offering not
only stunning views of the plateaus and
rocky geologic formations, but also in
the spring, the trail erupts with color
from balsamroot, bitterroot, showy
townsendia, yarrow, paintbrush, basalt
milkvetch and more.
Painted Hills/Sheep Rock — If you’re
up for a longer drive, you may still be
able to catch some of the stunning dis-
plays of wildflowers against the equally
stunning paleosols of the national mon-
ument near Mitchell. Prairie stars wel-
come the season and slowly give way to
bitterroot, mariposa lilies blazing stars
and even prickly pears come July.
Smith Rock — If you get
up early enough or luck
out and can find a
parking spot, the park
is full of vibrant col-
ors this time of year
along the river
trails. Arrow-
leaf balsamroot
welcomes hikers
near the parking
area and down the
Chute and Canyon
trails then along the
Crooked River where
you may find Idaho
milkvetch, chokeberry,
white campion and yarrow.
Mountain wildflower trails
Early flowers are starting to peak
out along the lower elevations in the
Ochocos and the Cascades. While
many trails may still be under consider-
able amounts of snow for a while, plan
ahead as they may require the newly
implemented Central Cascades Wilder-
ness Permit to access this summer.
A chokeberry
blooms at Smith Rock
State Park.
Makenzie Whittle/Bulletin photos
See Wildflowers / B12
Behind the scenes of replacing the
hardware on area climbing routes
BY CRISTINA PETERSON
For The Bulletin
One of the most common
questions climbers get from
other visitors at Smith Rock
State Park is “How do you
get the rope up there?” We
climb up and hang the rope, of
course! But it’s not as simple as
it sounds.
Two broad categories char-
acterize climbing routes on
ropes, traditional and sport.
The first of the two, traditional,
requires placing hardware in
existing cracks or other fea-
tures of the rock as you use the
rock itself to grab with your
hands and step on with your
feet. The hardware protects
climbers from a long fall and
is removed either by another
climber or by the climber that
placed it on their way back
down to the ground.
The second type of climbing,
sport, has bolts with hangers
on them installed in the rock
that a climber then clips gear
into and then their rope while
also using the rock for hand
and foot holds.
In most places, both types
of climbs have an anchor at
the top which consists of two
bolts with additional hard-
ware for the climber to clip
their rope into and then lower
from. Other climbers can then
use that rope to climb up and
lower down also.
Both of these types of climb-
ing are widely accepted by
climbers and land managers
as standard practice. Depend-
ing on the type of rock and its
features, a climb may either
be established as traditional
or sport. Central Oregon has
both styles but the majority of
climbs are sport climbs.
See Climbing / B11
Max Tepfer/Submitted photo
The single bolt shows corrosion at its base.